Sunday, January 2, 2011

Have You Gone Gourmet?

But it's her birthday, and I'm learning that little things matter and accumulate on the landscape of a child's soul. Lord help me embellish these cupcakes! I search for cupcake decorating ideas, and I'm astounded by the beauty and intricacy of cupcakes made all over the world. Cupcakes have gone entirely gourmet. In someone's kitchen, right at this moment, some parent has fondant butterflies and flowers neatly trimmed and little bows to tie around cupcake holders. Another parent has frosting piped out in whimsical designs.

I don't do cupcakes. I'm the furthest thing from gourmet I can think of. Can't I just phone the Cupcake Boutique and get this delivered?

But then, we find a picture of the most curious little cupcakes. Someone has made a stack of cupcakes made to look just like hamburgers.

"That's so cool, Mom! Can we make the hamburger cupcakes?"

I buy the ingredients, brace myself, and actually pray for God's creative genius to somehow flow into me. God invented gourmet, after all. Nothing is too hard or too elaborate for him.

I move forward. I bake chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. I slice them in half. I let my youngest sprinkle sesame seeds on the cupcake "buns."

It takes longer than I anticipate, and we destroy the kitchen. But I did something gourmet this day.

Gourmet: elaborate, rich, sensuous, and small. A small prayer, as small as cupcakes, as small as a child turning 9. I'll remember this small afternoon as we sprinkled sesame seeds on cupcakes that we transformed into buns. Living with flair means I learn to be a little gourmet.

PS: Folks have asked for the recipe, and I actually didn't find a real recipe--I improvised from a picture I found here. Here are the ingredients: 1 box vanilla cake mix1box chocolate cake mixSesame seedsFrosting colored yellow and red

Not everyone is born with the creative gene, no matter how much we might wish we were, but there is nothing at all wrong with following someone else's recipe for creativity! In fact, I see it as a compliment, a tip of the hat to the person who came up with the idea in the beginning.

Great job, Mom! My husband baked simple chocolate chip cookies with a secret ingredient that the kids would never divulge to me all through their school years. We STILL have the tin container that went back and forth on many bus rides. I refuse to pitch it. They had SO much fun and it constantly reiterated to me what a good man he was!

About Me

In my writing classes, we talk about writing with flair, but lately I've been interested in what it means to live with flair. Can I find a way to make every day impressive and meaningful? Just as a sentence turns into something beautiful with the right verb and punctuation, can I learn to revise my day and punctuate it with flair?

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More about me. . .

I'm a wife and mother of two who teaches college writing. I love writing novels, encouraging teachers, reflecting on spiritual principles in everyday life, drinking tea out of my little blue teapot, petting my cats, exercising, lighting candles, reading grammar books, watching movies and any television show with singing and dancing in it, entertaining, eating leftover Chinese food, and blogging. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.